Interview: talking with Mr. Paul Wambi about wildlife conservation

I was honored to talk with Mr.Paul Wambi, a senior county director in Amboseli. We discussed some questions about the effect of tourism and the possible solutions to human-wildlife conflicts.

Ask: I saw Maasai people grazing inside Amboseli today, and I wonder, what is the influence of the Maasais’ grazing inside the park to the wildlife?

Paul: The indigenous Maasai people have been living with wildlife for a long time. The animals are in and out, interacting with the Maasai people. Sometimes the animals are not in the park, they are in the community. So the community is the first person in terms of the protection of these wildlife. Because they live with them throughout. Furthermore, especially in Amboseli, the Maasai people are allowed to graze their animals at given times in the park. But they are not really allowed to keep staying inside the park. They graze the animals, provide them with water, and then come out. I have to say that, Maasai people love animals. They have live with these animals for years, generations after generations. From the oldest generation to the youngest generation, they all have the idea of conserving the wild animals. The Maasai people never use wildlife materials, they do not eat wildlife meat. They do not engage in poaching. So, their culture aligns greatly with conservation.

Ask: My another question is about tourism. Today we went to the park, and we saw an elephant that was surrounded by like 10 cars. What is the effect of tourism to those wildlife?

Paul: You see today is in summer. Today we are in high season. So you might have seen many vehicles inside the park. But next year, around April and May, we will not have that many vehicles inside the park. So you see, the situation continuously shifting. This is something that is not constant. However, of course there is an impact. There might be negative impact when in high season, when there are a lot of tourists watching the animals. But this is not constant. Sometimes we have 0 visitors, sometimes we have too much visitors. So, we are just working hard everyday to mitigate the possible negative impact that could occur as a result of tourism.

Ask: What do you think we can do to maintain a good lion-human relationship?

Paul: You see lions, they eat meat. They are carnivores. Sometimes the park is surrounded by herdsmen. Also, again, 70% of the wild animals in the park move in and out of the park. So sometimes lions can eat cows, goats. They might even injure people. And you know, human beings are human beings. Emotions can run high. When we have excessive predation, sometimes a lion can be injured or even killed by humans living around. But we are really engaging with the local community to increase their level of tolerance and acceptance. We have seen a lot of changes. If you look at the cow killed by lions, that might be a very large number. But the number of cases of retaliation, is going down. It means that overall the level of tolerance is high. Sometimes in people can lose 10 cows, but no lions are hurt. This is not because the lion is not sighted by people. It is because people see it and tolerant it. They can report to the authority, and the authority can take actions to compensate. So it is all about reaching tolerance and coexistence between wildlife and the local community. And the issue of benefit sharing, we are trying to share the benefits with the local communities in terms of consolations, compensations. We are conducting human-wildlife mitigation strategies. We are giving solar panels and other useful daily necessities to the local communities. So all these initiatives are helping to reduce the possibility of retaliation and the killing of wildlife.

End.

I would like to thank Mr.Paul Wambi for spending time talking to me. His answers are valuable first-hand resources for my wildlife conservation research. Thank you!